The best spectacle you can ask for

Archives: April 2018

Long known for being an actor and director, Sean Penn is also now a novelist. He released a 176 page book through Atria Books called “Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff”. This book was reviewed by The New York Times. They called it a nutty novel which is an enigma wrapped up in crazy. This book began as a short audiobook that he narrated himself.

“Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff” is about a middle-aged Californian man who is extraordinarily skeptical about modern times. The New York Times review says that what he does for a living is nebulous. He could be a world-traveling businessman or possibly a contract killer who murders older people. Or, he could just be a crazy person sitting at home just imagining he does these things.

The New York Times review says that “Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff” doesn’t have a formal plot to it. He hates his ex-wife and wants to get together with a young woman he knows called Annie. However, Annie may or may not exist. The reviewer said that the book is meant to be confusing by design and hearkens back to books by Hunter S. Thompson among others.

Entertainment Weekly also reviewed “Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff”. This review, written by David Canfield, calls the novel a trippy read. They said the book is satirical and involves madness which also reveals some surprising truths along the way. They say the book has a number of references to the current occupant of the White House and involves a Republican National Convention in the plot. There is also a character named Fletcher who is based on El Chapo, a Mexican drug lord who Sean Penn interviewed.

The Entertainment Weekly review says that “Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff” main character is Bob and they think he is somewhat modeled on Sean Penn himself. He, too, has gotten mad about the status quo on a number of occasions during the course of his career. The book is mainly about how American society has changed over the years to the point where those in the Baby Boomer generation don’t recognize what a lot of America is now about.

Celebrating their newest single release “Closer” ft Halsey, one half of The Chainsmokers, Alex Pall, sits down with interview magazine to talk about his DJing background, the duo’s music, and of course their newest single. Alex Pall begins the interview by answering a question of how this whole thing started. Pall explained he had been a DJ growing up, and that it was more of a hobby and side job than work. Eventually he realized dance music was taking over and consuming his life. He was introduced to DJ, producer partner and other half of The Chainsmokers, Drew Taggart, through their current manager. Pall quit his job and started producing music full time and pursuing music as his career.

When asked about their reasoning behind including their ownvocals on the hit track, Pall explained it’s because they want to put a face to the name. They want to be apart of their music. He continued to discuss that it was easy for them to include their own vocal tracking because of the nature of their lyrics. He expressed they didn’t just rely on songwriters to write their songs, and were in fact apart of the songwriting process with other professionals making them a huge part of the lyrics and meaning. He explained that’s why it was so easy for them to incorporate their own vocals into the track because it’s a reflection of what is going on in their lives at the moment.

Finally, when asked why they choseHalsey to work with Pallstated there was no one else they would rather want to collaborate with. He explained that they had wanted to work with Halsey for much over the last part of the year, and so the opportunity to work with Halsey was a dream come true for the duo. He awed as he discussed the nature of her music and explained they had just been drawn to her personality as she had established herself as a very cool and unique artist.

When German immigrant Otto Kolschowsky opened his Chicago area family-owned butcher shop and meat market Otto & Sons, known for its excellent cuts of meat, little did he know how large the company would become. Today, after more than 100 years of being committed to meeting the needs of customers for the highest quality products, combined with strategic growth, Otto & Sons is now the international food processing industry leader OSI Industries. The company is known all over the world for producing a wide range of the most nutritious, delicious, culturally-sensitive foods for the global market.

While some company’s drive to expand into a growing number of new markets leads them to cut corners when it comes to product quality and worker and environmental safety, OSI Industries does just the opposite. Even as the company serves customers in 85 countries, they continue to win awards for food safety and quality and enlightened environmental stewardship. Although OSI Industries expansion efforts have led them to build over 70 facilities for processing meat, fish, poultry, vegetable and dough products in 17 countries, quality, safety and customer satisfaction still serves as their guide.

Through expansion, joint ventures and acquisitions OSI Industries now has customers and facilities in Germany, Spain, Austria, Poland, Hungry, United Kingdom and the Netherlands, yet they’re still working to reach more customers on the European continent. To that end, they have added high capacity production lines to the chicken, pork and beef processing facility in Toledo, Spain. OSI Industries also acquired UK based food company Flagship Europe and Baho Foods, a Dutch company with customers in almost 20 companies throughout Europe. Together they give OSI Industries a more significant European presence.

Along with their growing customer base in Europe, OSI Industries expansion efforts have also led them to have a growing number of customers in Latin America, Mexico, Brazil, Taiwan, the Philippines, Beijing, Weihai and Shanghai in China, Bangalore and Punjab in India, Australia, Japan and Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. OSI Industries president David McDonald is given credit for much of the company’s successful expansion efforts because of his unique ability to deal with suppliers, workers and governmental agencies in a wide range of foreign countries. Over the past 20 years he has helped OSI Industries to become China’s largest processor of poultry.

Robert Deignan is a business owner and entrepreneur, who is the Co-Founder and CEO of a digital support service which is currently known as ATS Digital Services LLC. Robert boasts an impressive resume, earning his BS in Organizational Leadership from Purdue University which he attended from 1992-1995.

Upon graduation, he proceeded to start his first professional endeavor becoming the founder of Franklin Inc, a corporation that was located in the Ft. Lauderdale area from 1998-2001. From there he became the Executive Vice President of ISC, Inc. A computer software company that provides internet security, computer optimization, and technical support for its businesses and consumer clients.

From there Robert became, and is currently the Co-Founder of ATS Digital Services. ATS Services provides technical support, and or computer assistance to its clients. The services are fulfilled by telephone and or remote access. ATS has become a thriving and highly recognized company within the technical field. Just recently the company reached a critical milestone of becoming the first call center to be certified by AppEsteem. AppEsteem is a digital service that was founded by top Microsoft cybersecurity Veterans, and employees.

In order to obtain a certification through AppEsteem, a company must meet all thirty-nine compliance parameters set in place by AppEsteem’s call center certification process. Robert quotes this achievement by stating “Comprehensive, consumer-focused compliance is the backbone of our organization. When we started the review process in January, we discovered that we already met most of AppEsteem’s requirements.” With this accomplishment, it helped restore a lot of trust and faith to the field of call centers.

Many call centers are notoriously known for their exploitation of customers, over-selling, and unscrupulous behavior. Companies like ATS have restored some much-needed trust within the call center field. Robert Deignan continues to impress in the field of technology, and it will be interesting to see what he plans for next as he continues to contribute to the success of ATS Digital Services.

Waiakea water uses the latest technology to offer degradable bottles taking care of the environment. The company delivers products using the low-emission vehicles hence getting the certified Carbon Neutral. Additionally, the company uses 3% of annual revenue to improve the local community programs and also assist the nonprofits organizations. Also, every litre of water they sell, Waiakea donates to Malawi clean water for one week.

Waiakea water is the first company globally to use degradable plastic bottle fully. Also, they will be 100 percent created using the recyclable plastic. Water bottle made of ordinary plastic takes centuries to breaks down and degrades causing havoc to the environment while the Waiakea bottle will take only 15 years to break down.

Waiakea Inc is a wholesaler of Hawaiian Volcanic Water, and it offers patented and sleek design. It provides an array of volcanic water benefits that is healthy and sustainable. The company came into inception in 2012 dealing with water from naturally alkaline and pure sources. It boasts of having eco-conscious packaging, and it has a global philosophy of healthy and sustainable water.

The founder of Waiakea Ryan Emmons started the company after realizing the Hawaiian volcanic water has something special and unique. He discovered access to the most natural pure and healthy water sources globally and decided to share it with the world. The water comes from a natural and single source located in the town of Hilo on the southwest and Hawaii Big Island. The unique composition of Waiakea water ph and minerals like sodium, calcium, potassium magnesium and silica in an ideal amount of 30 mg giving your mouth silky and soft feel when drinking water.

Drinking water with silica helps to reduce Alzheimer risk by around 11 percents says Emmonsand Waiakea water boasts of 7.8 to 8.8 of PH making it more naturally alkaline. The company has used social elements in its business model that addresses the natural functions, environmental and social trends. It has partnered with the Pump Aid which is a charity dedicated to implementation and supply of clean water to rural homes in Africa. Waiakea has donated 500 millions of water to date.

Luiz Carlos Trabuco is currently located in Sao Paulo, Brazil and has been the Chief Executive Officer of Bradesco since March 10, 2009. He has also been the Executive Vice President of the bank.

In addition, he was announced as the Entrepreneur of the Year in 2015 in the finance category by Isto É Dinheiro magazine. In 2009, he was considered one of the top 100 most influential people in Brazil and in 2016, he was announced as one of the best CEOs in Brazil by American Forbes Magazine. He graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters of São Paulo de Marília and has a postgraduate degree in Socio-Psychology from Fundação School of Sociology and Politics of São Paulo.

Bradesco is set to announce the new president by the time Carnival happens. The Ordinary General Assembly will be announcing the new president’s name at their next meeting, which is March 13 according to meioemensagem.com.br. The people who are in the running for this position are: Mauricio Minas(technology), Alexandre Glüher(Investor Relations), Josué Pancini(head of the agency network), Marcelo Noronha(cards and investment bank), Octavio de Lazari(insurance), and André Cano(human resources.) At this point, the favorite and front runner seems to be Mauricio Minas.

Luiz Carlos Trabuco’s leaving of Bradesco’s management was delayed because of the increase of the age limit of what the chief executive officer had to be. It increased from 65 years to a maximum of 67 years. Another thing that played a hand in the delay was the death that resulted from a plane crash of the main candidate, Marco Antonio Rossi, who was the the vice president of the bank and the president of Bradesco Seguros. Although Luiz Carlos Trabuco could’ve kept his position until 2019, it was realized that someone would have to step in because of the resignation of Lázaro Brandão. It was Trabuco who was chosen as the new chairman. Bradesco couldn’t be reached for any additional comments. Bradesco is the second largest bank in Brazil.

Wes Edens is the founder the chairman of the Fortress Investment Group in New York. He has also worked in various positions such as principal, private equity chief investment officer, Head of Private Equity, and a Co-Chairman. His duties revolve around private equity and alternative assets businesses. Wes is a co-owner for Milwaukee Bucks, which is a National Basketball Association in Milwaukee. This means that he has a special interest in sports. Wes has a B.S in Finance & Business Administration from the Oregon State University. His career life kicked off in 1987 where he worked at the Lehman Brothers as a partner and a managing director until the year 1993. Following that, Wes joined the BlackRock Asset Investors in the private equity division until 1997, still as a partner and managing director. In 1998, Wes Edens together with four other partners founded the Fortress Investment. One of the proclaimed articles from Wes is one that he released in 2007, The Wall Street Journal, that described the creative financing and bets on investments. Through the efforts of the five principals, inclusive of Wes, the company was able to trade publicly and sold shares to the public worth $600 million by 2009.

In 2009, Eden was appointed a Co-Chairman of the Fortress Group Board of Directors.Further to his service, Wes was the Chairman of Transportation and infrastructure Investors at Fortress since 2015 to 2016 May. In that trend, the company announced the introduction of the team in eSports, which later formed the League of legend team. Wes enjoys climbing mountains and horse jumping whenever he is not engaged in his daily duties and professional work. He is currently a board member of 13 organizations that are based in 30 diverse industries globally. They include New Media Investment Group Inc. as a Chairman, Springfield Finance Inc., Springfield Finance Corporation, OneMain Holdings, Florida East Coast Holdings Corp., Mapeley Limited, Drive Shack Inc., Fortress Registered Investment Trust, New Senior Investment Group Inc., Fortress Credit Corporation, U.S Ski and Snowboard Team Foundation, Newcastle Investment Holdings LLC, and Fortress Investment Group LLC. He has served in different capacities giving his excellent expertise in the cardinal matters affecting the company and the customers. His emphasis on excellence is beyond say.

Apart from his direct service to the above institutions, Wes has firm affiliations with the most leading organization in both investment world and the entire business sector. Many companies have sought out after his services and he is doing his best to deliver where he can through his leadership mentorship and expertise. The affiliations of these organizations is a clear indication that he is a dependable and reliable resource for many humans whose skills and knowledge should not be underrated. In addition to his knowledge riches, Wes Edens is a rich individual in terms of money that he takes home. This is from the reward in the business and personal ventures into transforming the business world. Wes takes home $54.4 million every year as recorded in the New York Times articles regarding the private-equity industry. This figure is inclusive of his compensations from Fortress Investment Group and dividends from shares.

The leadership of a specified organization predetermines the success the organisation will amass. That means that competent leadership skills will always produce excellent results. An astute leader must have the necessary leadership skills required to oversee the operations of a company. As such, David McDonald is one outstanding leader who has carved out a name for himself in the meat industry. Serving as the president of this global provider of meat products, McDonald has achieved a lot of tremendous success through his expertise. Here is a look at his career and contribution to the company.

Background Check

McDonald grew up in the busy land of Iowa. He spent most of his time on the farms and was very close to his father who was an excellent farmer and agriculturist. While growing up, he observed his father’s input to the industry, indirectly as it was. So having learned some basic skills in farming, McDonald opted to join Iowa State University and specialize in a course that would toss him into the preferred industry of service delivery. He studied animal science.

Career

After graduating college, McDonald landed an employment opportunity at OSI Industries. In the past years, he has been working hard to raise the ranks of leadership and currently, he oversees various managerial departments. Having worked for OSI Group for more than 30 years, he is well acquainted with the ropes of the business and has dedicated most of his life to making sure that the company grows. McDonald has managed to showcase a different dimension of leadership in business.

Achievements

In his tenure as the president, McDonald has achieved a lot. For starters, he chaired the expansion of OSI Group to China. Currently, that plant produces over 100 tons of meat based products. That is why in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, OSI Group was trusted to supply all varieties of meat-based products.

The Overview

McDonald has also helped OSI Group to acquire Baho Food. Well, this manufacturing facility is well known for producing meat based delis and snacks in Europe’s’ larger market. From his contribution to the firm, it is evident that McDonald is an experienced leader and has dedicated a lot of personal resources to grow this company. He has also overseen other acquisitions that remain relevant to OSI Group’s growth. With that said, he can be viewed as a role model to young and emerging entrepreneurs who aspire to lead businesses.

The Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters (MIAL) has awarded Robert Ivy with Noel Polk Lifetime Achievement award. Robert Ivy is the current Chief Executive Officer of the American Institute of Arts. It is the first time for an architect to receive the Polk Award which in most cases goes to art patrons and artists from Mississippi. Mr. Ivy joins a rare list of distinguished people from Mississippi to receive such an award including Morgan Freeman (2007), Eudora Welty (2001), late artist Walter Anderson (1989), singer Price Leontyne (2000) and writer Shelby Foote (2004).

Nancy LaForge said that President of MIAL Robert Ivy has demonstrated that he is king in the world of architecture according to discoverorg.com. She added that there is no one who has worked so hard to make it accessible and publicize the work of architecture than Robert Ivy “Being an international writer, commentator, and author of architecture, Robert Ivy has rightfully joined a list of distinguished people receiving the prestigious Noel Polk award. On his part, AIA President Carl Elefante said that there was no other better person to receive the award besides Robert Ivy.

The current AIA President said that he has known Robert Ivy for a long time and his works in the field of architecture are evident. He said Ivy has been on the forefront emphasizing architects to diversify to other fields to become more productive in the society. He is indeed a deserving ambassador for architects in this country. This award could not have come any other better time. It is a crowning for both his personal and professional achievements as a person who hails from Mississippi. The president congratulated Ivy for scooping the award.

Mr. Robert Ivy was formerly working as an editor-in-chief at McGraw-Hill’s Architectural Record before being elected as the chief executive officer at the American Institute of Arts (AIA). Under his tenure at AIA, the institution becomes more active and liberal and received several international awards. AIA has since grown and recognized as an international organization and currently has over members even outside the United States. Ivy was also honored by the national architecture fraternity Alpha Rho Chi because of his role in propagating design ideas.

Robert Ivy went to Sewanee University where he earned Bachelor of Arts degree in English. He later proceeded to Tulane University for his Master of Architecture degree. Before becoming an architect, Ivy also served as a U.S Navy Officer. Robert Ivy has been praised for transforming the American Institute of Arts since he took over as the CEO.

Blockchain technology is poised to innovate applicationsfor artificial intelligence (AI). This is applicable to the current dynamic of global enterprises. Shervin Pishevar called attention to similar impacts that stateless digital currencies have upon small business.

Both AI and decentralized digital currencies are growing. Currently, private sector AI innovation primarily occurs at just a few research and development departments. These departments are connected to powerful monopoly like organizations. Many leaders and industry experts believe AI will advance global society to a new age. As Shervin Pishevar alludes to, this reshaping of the world requires the input of more than a few people.

The AI industry has grown at seemingly lightning speed. There is consensus that AI will be one of the most, if not the most, impactful technologies for the future. However, there are problems beyond innovating the technology for practical use. One of the most pertinent issues is that of human factors. Can an AI with significant control over daily life sustain the core values of humanity? This concern escalates when one realizes how few people are involved in its innovation.

Currently, AI is dominated by Amazon’s AWS and Microsoft’s Azure. Both are well recognized and respected companies. However, neither can claim a true pioneering spirit in the AI industry. Their loyalties to stockholders and diversified business interests do not align with the development of AI in the best interest of humanity. Furthermore, Shervin Pishevar identified monopolies, of which, both Amazon and Microsoft are included.

The dangers of modern monopolies is the impact to startups. By limiting startups, true innovation suffers. Ideas become centralized and focused toward maintaining outdated corporate agendas. As this suggests, centralized AI is not only bad for human factors but also limits the development of AI. It seems to use this technology to achieve linear objectives that support the agenda of a single entity. This contrasts the concept of a thinking intelligence and restricts AI technology to something similar to conventional linear programming. The insightful comments of Shervin Pishevar should be heeded as a warning that innovation and technology need to progress together.